The push for a cashless society is aided and abetted by the maturing of biometric technology. India is one of the leaders in the field of adopting biometric techniques.
“On an average, people in India (9 per cent) are three times more likely than any other country (3 per cent) surveyed to have used ‘iris recognition’ to identify themselves,” said HSBC in a report. It said people in Asia and the Middle East are ahead of the West when it comes to the adoption of new technologies due to greater understanding and optimism leading to more trust.
The report was compiled from research representing views of 12,019 people from 11 countries and territories — Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, UK and the USA.
India has led the world in driving consumer adoption of the technology because the Indian government has strongly (and forcefully) supported biometric adoption.
Other Asian nations are also ahead of the West in adopting biometrics. The accelerated adoption of fingerprint recognition in the East, a widespread consumer technology, highlights the contrast between East and West. People in China (40 per cent) are the highest adopters of fingerprint technology, followed by India (31 per cent) and the UAE (25 per cent) among the countries surveyed. On the other hand, just 9 per cent of people in France and Germany, and 14 per cent in Canada have used fingerprint technology to identify themselves, the report noted.
“Consumers living in countries in the East seem to have a better understanding and greater trust of emerging technology, and how it can benefit their lives. The speed of change and the insatiable rate of adoption put the likes of India, China and the UAE leaps ahead of most Western markets,” HSBC India Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management Ramakrishnan S said. In the case of India, a national mindset of openness coupled with government support for the roll out and promotion of new technology has had a transformative effect on the nation, he said.
The report revealed that Germany has the lowest adoption of smartphone or tablet banking with only 4 per cent claiming that phone banking is their preferred way of banking as compared to 9 per cent in Hong Kong and 15 per cent in the UAE.
Biotechnology is key to implementing a cashless environment, which will give banks and globalist institutions more power than ever. When it comes to enforcing a global religion, which the Bible predicts in Revelation 13, biometrics will be well-developed and a formidable tool in marginalizing those who refuse to obey worship laws.
“A refusal to obey the commandments of God, and a determination to cherish hatred against those who proclaim these commandments, leads to the most determined war on the part of the dragon, whose whole energies are brought to bear against the commandment-keeping people of God. “He causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Revelation 13:16, 17. Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 8, page 117.